eat up
Britishverb
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(also intr) to eat or consume entirely: often used as an exhortation to children
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informal to listen to with enthusiasm or appreciation
the audience ate up the speaker's every word
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informal (often passive) to affect grossly
she was eaten up by jealousy
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informal to travel (a distance) quickly
we just ate up the miles
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Consume completely, as in No television until you eat up your dinner , or This quarter's expenses have eaten up all my spare cash . The literal use (first example) dates from the early 1500s, the figurative from the early 1600s.
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Enjoy avidly, as in She simply eats up the publicity . [Late 1800s]
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Believe unquestioningly, be gullible, as in He'll eat up whatever the broker tells him . [ Slang ; early 1900s]
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Defeat completely, as in This new fighter just eats up every opponent . [ Slang ; c. 1830]
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See eat out , def. 2.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Claude James Jr., a behavioral specialist at a Boston high school, said the rent for the one-bedroom apartment he shares with his fiancée in suburban Quincy, Mass., eats up half of his monthly net income.
Seattle then signed him to a pricey contract extension, which is easier done without Wilson’s salary eating up cap space.
Rent eats up more than half of Imeh’s take-home pay, which was slimmed after a credit-card company started garnishing part of her wages to pay off her card debts, she said.
Now China has many of the world’s most notable EV makers, including brands that are eating up the market shares of General Motors, Volkswagen and others in China, Europe and elsewhere.
In the kitchen, her mom dished out two big bowls of ice cream and insisted that they eat up every last drop.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
